Sleep is crucial for the healthy development of adolescents, yet many suffer from chronic sleep deprivation. Over the transition to and course of adolescence there are known changes to sleep patterns e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Building on research suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, this paper examined trends in adolescents' psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022, and tested trends in sociodemographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 and 2022.
Methods: Using data from 792,606 adolescents from 35 countries (51% girls; mean age = 13.5; standard deviation 1.
Background: Self-reported health is a widely used health indicator in surveys and questionnaires. The measure gained attention when research identified its association with mortality in the 1970s and 1980s. The measure is also associated with morbidity and other health outcomes such as the utilisation of health services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Social media has become integrated into adolescents' lives and influences body image perceptions. Our study examined four patterns of social media use (SMU): non-active, active, intensive, and problematic. We hypothesised that intensive SMU and problematic SMU would be associated with negative body image (negative subjective body weight) and over/underestimated body weight congruence, compared to non-active and active SMU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We examined associations between recent contraceptive use and first-sex behaviors (early initiation, substance use, contraceptive use) among adolescents in Scotland.
Methods: We used data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study.
Results: Controlling for early initiation and substance use, girls and boys who used contraceptives at first sex were 7.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) conceptual framework identifies socio-economic position as a structural determinant of health. Recognized intermediary determinants include biological, behavioural, and psychosocial factors. We examined whether connections afforded by a healthy spirituality potentially act as unrecognized intermediary determinants in adolescent populations, contributing to inequities in mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about societal processes that contribute to changes in adolescent mental health problems. This study aims to fill this gap using data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study between 2002 and 2018 (n = 43, n = 680,269, M = 14.52 (SD = 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study examined trends in inequalities in health complaints among early adolescents in Scotland from 1998 to 2018. We analysed data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey conducted in Scotland in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. A self-report questionnaire was administered in schools to a nationally representative sample of 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds ( = 29,250).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Over the past decade, concurrent with increasing social media use (SMU), there has been a shift toward poorer sleep among adolescents in many countries. The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-national associations between adolescent SMU and sleep patterns, by comparing 4 different categories of SMU (nonactive, active, intense, and problematic use).
Design, Setting, And Participants: Data were from 86,542 adolescents in 18 European and North American countries that participated in the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged study.
Background: Adolescent loneliness and poor mental health represent dual public health concerns. Yet, associations between loneliness and mental health, and critically, how these associations vary in school settings are less understood.
Aims: Framed by social-ecological theory, we aimed to identify key predictors of adolescent mental health and examine school-level variation in the relationship between loneliness and mental health.
Child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing (MHWB) have received greater attention in recent years due to increases in mental ill health and reports of decreasing subjective wellbeing. The School Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE) was established to create a national infrastructure to support Scottish schools to collect and use health and wellbeing (HWB) data to inform school improvement action planning. This study aimed to evaluate a pilot of SHINE's provision of school-level HWB data reports from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey and their impact on school action planning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study investigated how adolescents' loneliness relates to school connectedness, classmate support, teacher support, and offline and online communication with friends. We also examined the association between loneliness, physical health, and sleep. Data came from the Scottish Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF-Societal gender inequality relates to gender differences in adolescent substance use.-The gender gap in adolescent substance use is larger in countries with higher levels of gender inequality.-Girls in these countries were less likely to get drunk, use alcohol or smoke cigarettes than boys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTeenCovidLife is part of Generation Scotland's CovidLife projects, a set of longitudinal observational studies designed to assess the psychosocial and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. TeenCovidLife focused on how adolescents in Scotland were coping during the pandemic. As of September 2021, Generation Scotland had conducted three TeenCovidLife surveys.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This article describes the selection of priority indicators for adolescent (10-19 years) health measurement proposed by the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health advisory group and partners, building on previous work identifying 33 core measurement areas and mapping 413 indicators across these areas.
Methods: The indicator selection process considered inputs from a broad range of stakeholders through a structured four-step approach: (1) definition of selection criteria and indicator scoring; (2) development of a draft list of indicators with metadata; (3) collection of public feedback through a survey; and (4) review of the feedback and finalization of the indicator list. As a part of the process, measurement gaps were also identified.
Background: With most mental health problems established during childhood/adolescence, young people must be a key focus of public mental health approaches. Despite the range of factors known to influence mental health, evidence for effective interventions is lacking for this age group. This study aimed to define priorities for future public health intervention-focused research to support youth mental health by engaging with transdisciplinary stakeholder groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Mental wellbeing in the UK seems to have deteriorated significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rates of loneliness, life satisfaction and psychological distress taking longer to return to the pre-pandemic levels than elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is little knowledge about the interactions between these outcomes, or the factors that played a role in the rates of change. The current study aims to address this gap by simultaneously investigating changes in loneliness, life satisfaction and psychological distress in the UK from pre-pandemic levels to those between April and November 2020, while critically assessing the role of a range of social ecological influencing factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Loneliness is prevalent among young people. But, there is little work exploring the association between loneliness with well-being among this age group. Framed by social-ecological theory, we examined demographic, interpersonal, and community factors associated with personal wellbeing and, critically, identified malleable moderators of the relationship between loneliness and well-being that could be targeted in intervention efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Loneliness is a growing public health concern, yet little is known about loneliness in young people. The current study aimed to identify social ecological factors related to loneliness and examine the extent to which geographic region may account for differences in loneliness.
Methods: The data come from a cross-sectional sample of 6503 young people living in the UK.
Spirituality is an ancient concept with many contemporary applications to the field of health promotion. While recognized in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a basic human right, definitional misunderstandings about what spirituality is, and is not, and the mechanisms by which it affects the health of young people, remain. In this cross-national analysis involving >75 000 adolescents from 12 countries, we examined the relative importance of each of four spiritual health domains (connections to self, others, nature and the transcendent) in the lives of young people, and how these connections relate to a standard indicator of positive mental health status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: There is currently no cross-national validation of a scale that measures problematic social media use (SMU). The present study investigated and compared the psychometric properties of the social media disorder (SMD) scale among young adolescents from different countries.
Design: Validation study.